If you're a site owner or have edit permissions on a SharePoint site, you can customize the navigation for your site. You can add, remove, or edit the links on the left-hand menu on a team site (also known as the Quick Launch menu) or the top menu on a communication site to give users quick access to sites and pages.

Notes:

If your site has been customized by the owner, the left-hand menu or top menu may not be available.

In SharePoint Online, you can only customize the left-hand menu on a team site at this time unless you are in classic mode.

Select your version of SharePoint below for the steps to customize the navigation on your SharePoint site.

Note: Some functionality is introduced gradually to organizations that have opted in to the First Release program. This means that you may not yet see this feature or it may look different than what is described in the help articles.

Note: If you don’t see Edit, you might not have permissions to customize the site navigation. You must have at least Manage Lists permissions. Contact the site owner either to get permissions to make the changes yourself or to have the changes made for you.

Hover over the location in the menu where you want to add a link and click + and then the down arrow.

On the Add a link dialog box, choose one of the following link options:

URL to add a link to any item, internal or external to your company. Just enter the address and a display name for the link.

Conversations to add a link to the Office 365 group conversations associated with the team site. Just enter a display name for the link. The address is automatically added and cannot be edited.

Calendar to add a link to the Office 365 group calendar associated with the team site. Just enter a display name for the link. The address is automatically added and cannot be edited.

Notebook to add a link to the OneNote notebook associated with the team site. Just enter a display name for the link. The address is automatically added and cannot be edited.

Planner to add a link to the Microsoft Planner instance associated with the team site. Just enter a display name for the link. The address is automatically added and cannot be edited.

Then, click OK.

You can also add a page to the menu from the Site Pages list. Select Pages from the left-hand menu, select the page you want to add, click ... either next to the page in the list or in the top navigation bar, and then click Add to navigation.

Note: If you don’t see Edit, you might not have permissions to customize the site navigation. You must have at least Manage Lists permissions. Contact the site owner either to get permissions to make the changes yourself or to have the changes made for you.

Hover over the location in the menu where you want to add a link and click + and then the down arrow.

On the Add a link dialog box, in the Address box, enter the URL for the link you want to add.

To add a link to a page in the left-hand menu, follow these steps:

Navigate to the page you want to add a link to.

Copy the URL from the address bar.

Paste the URL into the Address box

In the Display name box, enter the display text for the link. This is the text that will show up on the menu.

Click Edit at the bottom of the left-hand menu on a team site or to the right of the top menu on a communication site.

Note: If you don’t see Edit, you might not have permissions to customize the site navigation. You must have at least Manage Lists permissions. Contact the site owner either to get permissions to make the changes yourself or to have the changes made for you.

Click Edit at the bottom of the left-hand menu on a team site or to the right of the top menu on a communication site.

Note: If you don’t see Edit, you might not have permissions to customize the site navigation. You must have at least Manage Lists permissions. Contact the site owner either to get permissions to make the changes yourself or to have the changes made for you.

This creates an indented link under another link. You can add only one level of sub links on either the left-hand menu or top menu. In a top menu, such as on a communication site, this creates a single-level drop down menu.

Left-hand menu

Top menu

Click Edit at the bottom of the left-hand menu on a team site or to the right of the top menu on a communication site.

Note: If you don’t see Edit, you might not have permissions to customize the site navigation. You must have at least Manage Lists permissions. Contact the site owner either to get permissions to make the changes yourself or to have the changes made for you.

Click Edit at the bottom of the left-hand menu on a team site or to the right of the top menu on a communication site.

Note: If you don’t see Edit, you might not have permissions to customize the site navigation. You must have at least Manage Lists permissions. Contact the site owner either to get permissions to make the changes yourself or to have the changes made for you.

Next to the sub link that you want to promote to a primary link, click ....

Some links, such as Recycle Bin are system links and can't be removed.

Click Edit at the bottom of the left-hand menu on a team site or to the right of the top menu on a communication site.

Note: If you don’t see Edit, you might not have permissions to customize the site navigation. You must have at least Manage Lists permissions. Contact the site owner either to get permissions to make the changes yourself or to have the changes made for you.

Editing links in SharePoint Server 2016 or SharePoint Server 2013

To get started editing the links on your site, click one of the EDIT LINKS options on the page.

Change links in the Top link bar: Click EDIT LINKS near top (see "1").

Change links in the Quick launch bar: Click EDIT LINKS on the side (see "2").

Note: If you don’t see EDIT LINKS, you might not have permissions to customize the site navigation. You must have at least Manage Lists permissions. Contact the site owner either to get permissions to make the changes yourself or to have the changes made for you.

For sites in site collections where publishing features are enabled, you have more navigation options to choose from, including showing subsites and displaying the same navigation as a site's parent site navigation (also called inheriting parent navigation). If you don't see these options, check with your site administrator.

On the site where you want to change navigation settings, click Settings
, and then click Site settings.

On the Site Settings page, click Look and Feel, and then click Quick Launch or Top Link bar..

Choose options for the Quick Launch or Top Link bar, for example, to show subsites or to display the same navigation as the parent site (inherit parent navigation).

The links that appear on the left side of your site are called Quick Launch links. By default, Quick Launch includes links to recent items as well as important items like lists and libraries. The links at the top, in the Top Link bar, typically show subsites under your site.

Quick Launch

When you create a new list or library, a new link appears automatically under Recent on Quick Launch. Only the five newest links appear in the Recent section.

Note: When you create a new page, it doesn't automatically appear in Quick Launch. You have to create a link to the page and add it yourself.

Top Link bar

You can also customize the navigation links on the Top Link bar of your site to change capitalization, rearrange the order, or add links to the subsites that users visit most often.